Suzy’s Not a Homemaker

i’ve finally found it — that sweet spot. for most of this blog’s lifespan, i was cooking way too much food (and wasting it, most of the time). then, in the last few months, i stopped cooking altogether for awhile. and now, after about two weeks worth of wobbling on the fence (some nice consonance there! unintended, natch), i believe i have found the sweet spot. in celebration, i cleaned out my virtual recipe box. any recipes with more than (approximately) six ingredients, deleted. any recipes that called for ingredients not within the budget, deleted. any recipes that looked too elaborate, deleted. what a great feeling!

i tested the theory out this weekend. i looked for the simplest recipes i could find. turns out, we love eating them more than things that took me over an hour (whether because of lack of proper kitchen tools or whatever) to make. plus these recipes are so tasty you just can’t not love them:

yes, we are on a mushroom kick. but they taste completely different in each of these recipes. and i used three different kinds — white mushrooms for the pasta with goat cheese, portobellos for the asparagus, and cremini with the egg noodles. yummmm.

so busy that i haven’t had time to post. i’m going to try to do better, because i’ve definitely entered a new phase of cooking. in the meantime, grouprecipes is still the best! i have ceased using all other recipe sites except for epicurious. which has had a makeover and looks lovely.

this shouldn’t be too hard for me, seeing as i’ve been pretty silent anyway. but this is silence for a cause! as far as not being silent, i plan on getting caught up this weekend. here’s hoping it happens!

i’m not really a slacker — at least not in the physical world. H and i both started new jobs last week, and things have been manic. between new schedules, new work loads, and transitioning paychecks (ouch, that hurts), i have barely had time to make meals, much less blog about them.

this weekend is a special weekend — we’re taking a work-sponsored getaway tomorrow night. so probably i won’t be posting until mid-week, but be assured:

suzy still can’t cook, and will be back to tell you all about it soon!

kristen has a new ice cream maker. my jealousy would know no bounds, except that … drumroll … i have a new foreman! well, not a foreman. and not a new one. but still! i have been coveting one for a long time now, so it doesn’t matter that it only cost me $3.99 at savers (which is the new love of my life — after H of course — and my budget).

so now a george foreman grill joins my array of second-hand appliances. it certainly won’t win any beauty contests any time soon — it’s got some adhesive-stain spots, and the grill itself is a bit banged up (who uses metal to scrape off a foreman grill? apparently whoever owned this before me), but it is totally functional! i tested in the store, so i know.

i haven’t actually made anything yet, but H and i are both having visions. mine tend more towards grilled cheese, marinated portobello steaks, and things of that nature, while his apparently include lots of salmon & steak. the beauty of that is, i don’t have to worry about cooking meat anymore! he can do it all on his own now.

so, kristen, for the time being you are spared waves of jealousy emanating from my direction. i expect that in the summer time it will be harder for me to keep that under wraps. but i will be asking buddha for a cuisinart ice cream maker to appear at savers before then — we’ll see if he delivers!

and now for something completely different — why do people make kitchen appliances white? it looks like i’ve attempted to coordinate my kitchen to match H’s iBook. i swear to you, it’s not true! is it so that we can all feel bad about how dirty things get, in order to keep our house-keeping self-esteem at it’s bare minimum? or do they actually think that stains don’t show up IMMEDIATELY and to stay if everything is pure white? i don’t know, but to whomever decided that all things kitchen should be white, i scoff at you and firmly believe that you have never stepped foot into an actual kitchen. thank buddha for marbled kitchen counters!